And still more workbenches

Bill Akins

Here is my workbench I made a couple of years ago. You can see the bench during construction at: http://lumberjocks.com/Billboard/projects/page/3
Its made from Home Depot 4x4 posts for the legs, 2x6 top covered in MDF and hardboard. 2x6 skirt around it. Lots of bench dog holes. Cost $100 for the bench and $125 later for the 2 vises. Heavy, sturdy flat and does the job. Every few months I scrape the drips on the top, light sand it and apply a couple coats of poly. I added a shelf and a drawer underneath.

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Chris Askwith

My main workbench is made using a crockery display stand I salvaged from a shop that was closing, I added some extra screws and struts to make it stronger and more sturdy, the height of it nice as I am a taller person and I can stand comfortable at. Originally it was full length across the top but I recently bought a new band saw and the only place to put it at the correct height was to chop off half the top and mount it on the lower shelf. 

The main use for this bench as you can see is to keep the tools I need for my lathe close to hand. The rest of the top is almost level with the table of the bandsaw so it provides a handy support when cutting longer stock. The lower shelf is used for storing logs of English bog oak that I use in the production of pipes. The bench serves me well and cost nothing but a few screws and off cuts to “beef” it up.

I have also included pictures of another little work area I made. With space being at a premium the area in front of the door is very valuable, but of course I need to be able to access it easily. So I built this fold down worktop, it is set at the correct height so I can sit at it comfortably and use it for a lot of hand work and fine detail work. It is surprisingly sturdy and sees daily use. Again it was made of scraps and offcuts and cost me only a set of hinges.

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Derek McCrone

This is the first project I ever made. I decided I was an adult now and asked my parents for some power tools for Christmas so I could get into wood working. Once I got them I realized I needed a work bench, so I set out to make one!

This is the result. Its just made from 2x4s with a plywood top, but I think it turned out pretty good.

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Michael Borg

The wooden crate with the MDF top is my work bench. Just the right size.

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Dwayne Bowyer

Well, Dwayne wins the award for the best makeshift, dual-function bench! Ha!

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Still organizing

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 12:32 PM

I decided against throwing out my scrap wood and am giving it away on Craigslist. I saw an episode of Hoarders the other day and it really inspired me to stop saving stuff I probably will never use.
Ive been working on getting a video together for the guitar pick holder I made last weekend. Look for it on Friday. Its really a great little project and one that allows you to use those, well, scraps youve been saving. Wait, what?? Preview of it at the end of this video:

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And still more router tables!

Posted by chun | 0 comments | 2:55 PM

Paul Homes tells me the router tables with the pivoting fences are quite popular in Australia. He clued me into Gifkins, a web site that not only sells specialty jigs, but has free plans for a router table you can make yourself.(PDF) Next, head over to Martin Popes blog where he describes how he built his inexpensive router table. Check out his method for raising and lowering the router:

My low tech solution was two blocks of wood with a 45ish degree angle cut between them. A long slit was cut in one block into which a long bolt was passed through into a nut at the rear. As the bolt is turned it closes the blocks together which raises the router, screwing out the bolt lowers the router.

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Mere Minutes